The man, not the ball? Of course, we are the experts. We have big strong defenders, midfielders and attackers willing to take the man not the ball out of the equation, and a goalkeeper who also, despite not being big for a goalkeeper, will jump through man and ball to get both away. There is so much close grabbing in the box that they need to be implored to get a room. Brentford, and Keith Andrews, decided they needed to beat Arsenal at their own game, and they succeeded expertly, so much so that whenever they had a corner or throw in, our players and fans were panicking. Certainly I was, watching at home on TV. Now we know what it is like for other teams. Hurzeler at Brighton shows he knows all about the dark arts as well. Keith Andrews, my fellow Dubliner, loves the dark arts In the Wenger days, our glory days, he never encouraged any form of dark arts but there is plenty of evidence from his players that they did it without his permission or knowledge. Ferguson, by contrast, was a master of darkness as was Mourinho, who emerged as the second bete noir to Wenger. Big changes ahead? But is it football? I suspect that the coming World Cup (if it goes ahead) may well see a change in interpretation and holding in the box will be outlawed. They may bar putting your arms around another player and also maybe holding another player with one arm. I am as close to certain that next season’s Premier League will see this as all the noises coming from all sides seem to indicate this is what will happen. They cannot really do it at this stage of the season. I for one will be happy to see the pulling and dragging hauled out of football. And yes, it will have implications for Arsenal. That's a dark outfit you are wearing Mr Hurzeler But for the worse? Why should it? There will be no reason not to keep coming up with ways to flummox the opposition from set-pieces. We can still be the set-piece kings, using movement, speed, and great discipline to work out ways to score. We do have an advantage over many of our rivals in that a lot of our players have been playing together for years and the new ones seem to slot in very nicely. Zubimendi, Hincapie, and Mosquera are standouts this year for that, if not quite Gyokeres and Eze. Togetherness is our superpower I believe we are winning the league at present and doing so well in all competitions because of this factor, more so than any other. The team slot together well. All the players know what they are doing and what they are supposed to be doing. It does make us predictable, however, and teams have used that to their advantage. On days when the passes are not hitting home as well as they should means that we will suffer that day. We have had quite a lot of such days but have managed to scramble points most times. We have averaged 2.207 points per game so far and a repeat of that gives us around 84 points. Will that be enough? Probably, I would guess. Only City can get to that and they would need a strong finish to do so. Can David Moyes, Arteta's friend, cause an upset? But we can assume that the dark arts, and the strongman approach to set-pieces will continue to the end. They will probably garner us some points that we might not necessarily get without them. Like I said, we do have an advantage of togetherness that maybe no other team has. City are probably the closest in this aspect as they are now flowing better than before. Their new players are settling in and that togetherness is getting them over the line without necessarily playing all that well. Still, I feel we are stronger in this regard. That gives us an advantage in our matches. All will play their part Or Arteta's friend, Iraola, give us grief? Or Arteta It is up to Arteta and the backroom team to bolster the players for every match to ensure a high level of wins to secure the title. Zubimendi, Hincapie, Mosquera, Eze, Madueke, Gyokeres, Norgaard and Kepa will be critical in how they slot in when they are needed. So will all the rest who have been there longer. It will not be for a lack of a strong squad that we miss the title. And if what we are playing at times is not football as I recognise it, we will need to keep doing it until the end of the season as all other teams will for sure. Table of Doom update Arsenal Now 67 Max. 91 Manchester City Now 60 Max. 87 Aston Villa Now 51 Max. 78 Manchester United Now 51 Max 78 Chelsea Now 48 Max. 75 Liverpool Now 48 Max. 75 Fixtures Arsenal: Man City A Man City: Chelsea A Arsenal H Villa A Aston Villa: Man Utd A Liverpool H Man City A Man Utd: Villa H Chelsea A Liverpool H Chelsea: Man City H Man Utd H Liverpool A Liverpool: Man Utd A Chelsea H Villa A This time there has been 2 matches and Arsenal are the only ones to win both. We can now lose at the Etihad and still win the league. A quick recap of the targets I set. Originally I said 89 points and only Arsenal can reach that but I revised that to 81 as the minimum needed, partly to keep the Table of Doom alive. Only City and ourselves can reach that. I feel around 84 will be the final amount but it still requires strong runs from both teams to get to that. These bottlers desperately need to be back in the big time I also put 75 as the drop out point for the Table and both Liverpool and Chelsea are on that and they have to play each other. Villa and United have to play each other as well as they are both on the same points at the moment. Carrick’s defeat to Newcastle may well be the portent of his collapse and it looks like 75 will soon be out of reach for all bar City. There are plenty of points that are guaranteed to be dropped as the top six still have many games against each other. It is looking like a points total in the 60’s will secure Champions League. Will it be five places this time? If so one of those will lose out and I believe Liverpool and United, the 2 giants of English football, will be the ones scrapping for that final place. So do these bottlers We have one biggie only and Bournemouth and Everton before that. City have West Ham and Chelsea away and possibly Palace at home before the scrap with us. If we win both we possibly will have a bigger lead by then but for sure not an unassailable one. A win puts us, assuming an earlier 2 wins for both, and assuming the Palace game hasn’t happened, 10 points ahead with 5 matches to go. A really strong position and one I am certain we will not blow. C’mon the Arsenal!